Living and Parenting as a Liberal Feminist Christian

Posts tagged “Rachel Held Evans”

For the past week or so, a lively debate has been taking place on the internet between Christians who believe it’s okay to refer to God with feminine pronouns, and Christians who believe that it’s not. I say “lively debate,” but that’s a poor description. What I have seen has been some debate, but mostly a situation in which Rachel Held Evans, who dared two years ago to use the phrase “God herself” in a blog post (and whose career is built on questioning gender expectations within the church), was turned into a punching bag, swung at mercilessly by the twin fists of I AM RIGHT and YOU ARE WRONG. The problem with treating someone as a punching bag has nothing to do with…

I’ve been trying hard for the past several months not to blog every time something upsets me. The World Vision situation this week seems big enough and important enough–and I’m upset enough!–that I need to say something. This is that something. In the 90s and early 2000s, my dad, Christian musician Ray Boltz, raised a lot of money for a Christian aid organization Mission of Mercy. A Mission of Mercy representative we called “Uncle Wayne” preached at all of Dad’s concerts and told his packed audiences about poverty in countries like India, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. Then they’d take up an offering, and so many people would give that I remember seeing piles and piles of money being counted in the dressing room. Dad, Uncle…

In April, I’ll be facilitating a festival circle at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing. We’ll be talking about narratives of leaving fundamentalist faith communities, which are quite popular right now. I’m really excited to lead this discussion! If you’re attending the Fest and would like to join us, you need to sign up by March 31. Details are on the Festival Circles page. As I prepare, I’ve been looking through books that I own (or want to own) to figure out just how popular this kind of narrative is. Here is a list of the books that I think fit into this genre, although there is always room for debate, and I haven’t read all of these books in their entirety (just…

I’ve decided to participate in the American Jesus Madness bracket this year! Here is my bracket, which I downloaded from the American Jesus site and filled out using PicMonkey.com. I don’t do sports, and the closest I’ve ever come to filling out any sort of bracket was in the the eighth grade, when my history teacher had us all do brackets for March Madness. I don’t know why. I won because I randomized my answers and put down UCLA. I also voted in the Pie vs. Cake bracket on Jezebel several years ago. So, taking that into consideration, I don’t understand how to figure odds or anything like that. I don’t know the bracket lingo. I do, however, know my way around Christian pop…

I read shamefully few books during the semester. I just don’t know how to manage my teaching and grading load, parenting, blogging, and a tiny bit of socializing with getting real reading done. However, during breaks, I make up for it by reading as much as I possibly can. In May, when I travel to India, I’m going to have two fifteen-hour flights, one at each end of the trip. I’m planning on reading as much as I can during those blocks of time, so yesterday I loaded up my Kindle with some new selections that I can’t wait to tackle. This is my India reading list. Want them for yourself? Here are the Amazon links: Evolving in Monkey Town Game of Thrones Autobiography…

I’m teaching four courses this semester. Here are some of the essays and stories I am excited to get to teach: “The Fourth State of Matter” by Jo Ann Beard “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie* “The Hell-Raiser” by Kelefa Sanneh* “Facts of Life: The Case for Sexuality Education” by Amy Frykohlm* “15 Reasons I Left Church” and “15 Reasons I Returned to the Church” by Rachel Held Evans* “Becoming Adolph” by Rich Cohen “The Feminine Mystique” (first chapter) by Betty Friedan *something I’m teaching for the first time